Mullane: New Jersey creates a Ministry of Local News

JD Mullane Columnist @jdmullane

Wednesday

Aug 8, 2018 at 5:00 AM

Trenton has allotted $5 million to the "Civic Information Consortium," to hand out grants to local news operations.

After some kvetching about how newspapers had been hit hard by the Great Recession, Sen. Arlen Specter leaned across the polished conference table at the Bucks County Courier Times and asked the editorial page editor and me, “What do you need?”

Huh?

“What do you need? From me,” he said.

He said it in a kind of whisper, like people do when they’re not sure they’re being recorded.

“What do you mean?” the editorial page editor asked.

The late Sen. Specter, who was visiting to chat with the paper’s editorial board, said if there was legislation he could sponsor, perhaps with funding attached from federal bailout money, he’d be happy to help.

The editor and I were briefly speechless. And repulsed. That's because there's an adage in journalism: “Follow the money.” It means if you want to find out why some institution, political party or administration is corrupt, find out who’s bankrolling it.

That an independent newspaper would take government money to fund newsroom operations is unfathomable to us old-time news hounds.

Now it’s not. At least in New Jersey.

Before leaving for his vacation across the Atlantic, Gov. Phil Murphy, D-Italy, signed legislation creating the Stalin-esque sounding “Civic Information Consortium.” This year it allots $5 million in taxpayer money to subsidize local news operations that struggle in the wake of momentous digital changes that have transformed the economics of covering news.

Five state colleges/universities now comprise the state’s Ministry of Local News (“MiniNews”), and its board of functionaries, I mean, board of directors, will dole out grants to local news operations it deems worthy of government beneficence.

The institutions of higher learning include Rutgers, Rowan, Montclair, the New Jersey Institute of Technology and The College of New Jersey.

None of these schools are enthusiastic supporters of free speech, according to the Foundation of Individual Rights on Campus, or FIRE. The College of New Jersey and the New Jersey Institute of Technology are given red light ratings, since FIRE states they have explicit policies restricting an individual’s right to free speech on campus. FIRE gives the three others yellow light ratings, because their campus speech codes are written so ambiguously that any unpopular idea can be tagged hate speech.

With the local news (partially) in the hands of academics hostile to free speech, what could possibly go wrong? Well, NPR and PBS.

These commercial-free broadcast operations receive public funding for their news operations because their elderly, white liberal listeners/viewers cheap out at fundraising time, I guess. Not that all of the programming on NPR or PBS is bad. Some is really good. The Lawrence Welk Show TV reruns are a hit with my teenage kids, who find old Larry and that sea of polyester suits weird, for some reason. But let’s not be pollyannas. When it comes to journalism, NPR and PBS have a sharp point of view, and it lists heavily to port.

No surprise, then, that MiniNews is championed by the, ahem, “Free Press Action Fund,” described by CNN as “a liberal public interest group.”

Free Press Action Fund’s spokesman, Mike Rispoli, whose biography states he was once a reporter for the Newark Star-Ledger, said the $5 million from New Jersey’s public goody bag will provide news coverage to under-served communities. The activist outfit wanted $100 million, but that kind of dough even made Trenton squirm. Well, there’s always next year.

The problem is this creates state-sponsored journalism. If it metastasizes as a "business" model, controversial topics involving those in government or with government connections will result in reporters suddenly overcome with finger cramps as they take notes from a tipster whispering about public corruption.

No more “follow the money” if the money leads to a government paymaster who has power to cut funding through MiniNews.

New Jerseyans won’t be getting the straight scoop on local news as much as the party line from Trenton, and you'll be paying for it with your tax money, too.

JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.

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